AFL-W and W League

This forum is for the discussion of women's football, the fastest growing participation sport in Australia. This includes local women's football and the A-League Women.

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billy the kid
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AFL-W and W League

Post by billy the kid »

Strip back the hype and the fact that in Oz cricket and AFL (in that order) will always usurp soccer in this country. Whilst the upper echelon fight to keep cricket relevant (FFS 20/20 side show) and AFL with $$$ soccer will struggle for coverage to the extent a 7 week AFL-W league has been getting.

In context the W-League 2016/2017 delivered one of the best seasons in years. Excellent games with teams brimming with good talent (local and overseas) and games worthy of coverage on TV (not just one per week) and the coverage has been appalling. Yes we’ve had some stories in the paper and Val is probably pushing S*&T up the hill however, the pathetic year AUFC Men’s year gets massive spreads. AUFC women who demolished teams in the last month of comp and throughout the 14 week season kept the league pace setters to draws gets little if anything. The 10-2 demolition of West Sydney GOT F all in any of SA media outlets. The AUFC W had the first Brazilian player (Olympic gold medallist and world cup player) and 3 professionals from the USA (National representatives of USA) and there is ZERO in the paper.

In contrast, a AFL-W league made with players poached from other sports (who constantly preach “I’ve always wanted to play footy but I didn’t have a comp) and girls who were playing in the back blocks of suburbia in years gone bye have somehow managed to get prime time exposure, $$$$$$ thrown at them. Look at what actually is on offer and strip back the hype and back stories, its akin to a div 3 team in the women’s league being thrust into the W league a decade ago and getting prime time coverage. All for a 7 week season. And a rising star award and Grand Final to boot.

Our international player Sofia gets the player of the month for January with a stunning display of football brilliance and Chidiac, young player of the month get bugger all. Again in contrast, a 7 week season gets media overload. Sad thing is, that once the novelty wears off and you look behind the hype the comp will have its struggles.

However, soccer will continue to develop and attract people to a structured and well developed sport however, AFL W will lure them with $$$ media exposure whilst the product is below par to say the least. The top 4 players in each team will all have a finite existence it’s the structure below to bring the next crop through which will be the challenge. Soccer can only provide so much.

Even our local WNPL delivers a FAR BETTER product than the AFL-W league. Make no mistake, I love my AFL and put it above the A-League as far as my support however, this absurd situation re: AFL-W is a joke.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by Brian the Postman »

The AFL is buying peoples attention.

The AFL womens league isn't viable and will die instantly the moment the AFL withdraws the funding. The fact that some our womens football players are changing codes for small sums (relatively speaking) is appalling and reveals a greedy streak within these people.
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by juniorsupporter »

I think calling the girls who are playing both codes greedy is bit unfair. They are professional athletes trying to make a living wage. I am not an AFL fan by a long shot and I also don't know how viable the women's comp will be in the long run. But I don't begrudge these women, these professional athletes, an opportunity to play sport and make a living.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by themagnet »

juniorsupporter wrote:I think calling the girls who are playing both codes greedy is bit unfair. They are professional athletes trying to make a living wage. I am not an AFL fan by a long shot and I also don't know how viable the women's comp will be in the long run. But I don't begrudge these women, these professional athletes, an opportunity to play sport and make a living.
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billy the kid
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by billy the kid »

I won’t speak for the author however, greed is probably not the word that defines the players. My post was more about the behemoth known as the AFL and the absurd situation with respect to overload of publicity.

Yes the AFL doesn’t force the press and TV stations to put the stories to air on in print however, the AFL does exercise enough muscle to ensure it happens. The rationale behind the comp as I see it has an ulterior motive that I believe came out the other week, that is, the push to get females into the game will serve two purposes, improve the appeal of the game right across all sectors of the community. Get the mums and other female relatives and friends of the girl into the footy groove.

Why? It is well known that on the back of AFL being seen by mums as a sport (if their boys choose to follow) has had some very high profile injuries sustained. It is a collision sport. Hence there has been a move away at the junior levels of boys and teens with mums encouraging them to pursue sports with a less fierce reputation e.g. soccer, etc.

A bit the like some cults, the AFL brings in the decision makers and presents them with a nice fluffy environment that the girls can play in and hopefully encourage their sons to follow suit.

Really there is no other explanation. Otherwise if you really wanted the AFL W league to prosper, you would at least start with the local SANFL and getting the league structure right so it was sustainable. This will take many years and something that a 7 game season will not deliver.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by alwaysoffside »

Brian the Postman wrote:The AFL is buying peoples attention.

The AFL womens league isn't viable and will die instantly the moment the AFL withdraws the funding. The fact that some our womens football players are changing codes for small sums (relatively speaking) is appalling and reveals a greedy streak within these people.
The W-AFL is cost neutral for the AFL.
Sponsorships endorsements and Tv rights are funding this comp entirely.
Hence free entry and free membership for W-AFL clubs.
Clever really

billy the kid
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by billy the kid »

SPOT on
alwaysoffside wrote:
Brian the Postman wrote:The AFL is buying peoples attention.

The AFL womens league isn't viable and will die instantly the moment the AFL withdraws the funding. The fact that some our womens football players are changing codes for small sums (relatively speaking) is appalling and reveals a greedy streak within these people.
The W-AFL is cost neutral for the AFL.
Sponsorships endorsements and Tv rights are funding this comp entirely.
Hence free entry and free membership for W-AFL clubs.
Clever really

United We Stand
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by United We Stand »

[quote="billy the kid"]Strip back the hype and the fact that in Oz cricket and AFL (in that order) will always usurp soccer in this country. Whilst the upper echelon fight to keep cricket relevant (FFS 20/20 side show) and AFL with $$$ soccer will struggle for coverage to the extent a 7 week AFL-W league has been getting.

In context the W-League 2016/2017 delivered one of the best seasons in years. Excellent games with teams brimming with good talent (local and overseas) and games worthy of coverage on TV (not just one per week) and the coverage has been appalling. Yes we’ve had some stories in the paper and Val is probably pushing S*&T up the hill however, the pathetic year AUFC Men’s year gets massive spreads. AUFC women who demolished teams in the last month of comp and throughout the 14 week season kept the league pace setters to draws gets little if anything. The 10-2 demolition of West Sydney GOT F all in any of SA media outlets. The AUFC W had the first Brazilian player (Olympic gold medallist and world cup player) and 3 professionals from the USA (National representatives of USA) and there is ZERO in the paper.

In contrast, a AFL-W league made with players poached from other sports (who constantly preach “I’ve always wanted to play footy but I didn’t have a comp) and girls who were playing in the back blocks of suburbia in years gone bye have somehow managed to get prime time exposure, $$$$$$ thrown at them. Look at what actually is on offer and strip back the hype and back stories, its akin to a div 3 team in the women’s league being thrust into the W league a decade ago and getting prime time coverage. All for a 7 week season. And a rising star award and Grand Final to boot.

Our international player Sofia gets the player of the month for January with a stunning display of football brilliance and Chidiac, young player of the month get bugger all. Again in contrast, a 7 week season gets media overload. Sad thing is, that once the novelty wears off and you look behind the hype the comp will have its struggles.

However, soccer will continue to develop and attract people to a structured and well developed sport however, AFL W will lure them with $$$ media exposure whilst the product is below par to say the least. The top 4 players in each team will all have a finite existence it’s the structure below to bring the next crop through which will be the challenge. Soccer can only provide so much.






Well written Billy the Kid. You have expressed the situation very well. I have been feeling sorry for our W-League girls ever since the AFL-W started. The W-League girls are great athletes and they don't get the exposure and recognition that they deserve for the huge commitment that they put in. Meanwhile there are girls who have barely played a game of Aussie Rules that are getting the blanket media coverage and the financial rewards as provided by the resources of the AFL. It seems so unfair.

P.S We had the W-League Semi-Finals last weekend but those girls got scant coverage. The AFL media machine and the dollars thrown at the AFL-W has seen to that. The World Game has made huge progress with the inception of the A-League but this move by the AFL shows how threatened they are by football. This is a deliberate attempt to destabilise the numbers of girls going to the round ball game (The sport with the biggest participatory rate in Australia.)


P.P.S I am really disappointed with FOX-Sports. They have been replaying those AFL-W games on a daily basis. They cover the W-League. too but our football does not get anything near that sort of exposure.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by MegaBonus »

surely we can see the ulterior motive????

fastest growing female sport in the world = 'soccer'

who decides what sport children play = mums
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by Youth Unemployment »

MegaBonus wrote:who decides what sport children play = mums
Do they?

billy the kid
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by billy the kid »

Cheers United.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by billy the kid »

Significant influencers
Youth Unemployment wrote:
MegaBonus wrote:who decides what sport children play = mums
Do they?

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by Wayne Kerr »

wait till their are no more free tickets to watch w-afl, then see how many will go to watch the games....
unless FFA get off their backsides and promote the womens and youth games more, you will continue to have the same problems in future.
Look at the fantastic job they are doing with the Mens aleague promotion.... or lack off!
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Brian the Postman
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by Brian the Postman »

alwaysoffside wrote:
Brian the Postman wrote:The AFL is buying peoples attention.

The AFL womens league isn't viable and will die instantly the moment the AFL withdraws the funding. The fact that some our womens football players are changing codes for small sums (relatively speaking) is appalling and reveals a greedy streak within these people.
The W-AFL is cost neutral for the AFL.
Sponsorships endorsements and Tv rights are funding this comp entirely.
Hence free entry and free membership for W-AFL clubs.
Clever really
I wouldn't believe that for a second.

I'm sure that they will be seeking a bigger slice of the governments funding for sport on the back of the womens AFL though.
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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by BeNatural »

The AFLW won't die slowly. It will grow.

A number of reasons include it will always be solely funded by the AFL. Spending $5m a year to run the comp is nothing to the AFL when they are promoting female participation for their heavily male dominated sport.

Also as they are aligned with men's AFL clubs, these established clubs have huge membership and supporter bases. You look at Collingwood. 70k members. Another estimated 100k supporters. They only need 5% of that supporter base to turn up to matches and they have 8000 people attending.

You look at United. They only have 8000 members. So if only 5% turn up to w-league matches that's only 400 people.

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Re: AFL-W and W League

Post by Leppskiii »

:lol: Most of the girls who have code hopped have played junior boys footy.
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